Chapter 3

I walked into the room and looked around. It was almost identical to the one before it, but the books weren’t as dusty, as if they were used frequently. 

“Hello James. It is a pleasure to meet you.” a voice said.

I whirled around, looking for the source of the voice, and said, “Who’s there?!”

A tall man gracefully walked out of a dark corner of the room, and said, “Who I am doesn’t matter. It’s you that I am interested in, James. Or should I call you Viz?”

I was shaken that he knew my name, and then thought that he probably had the place wired, with cameras and recorders. I felt pretty dumb after that move. 

“That’s right, I saw your little stunt with my guards, and I knew as soon as you pulled that off that you were the one I’ve been looking for. And sorry about the guards, I know they can be a little, erm, crude. It’s hard to find guards that are sophisticated and that follow orders, so I had to settle with unsophisticated ones that follow orders. That is why it was hard to make you feel welcome. I really wish that I could, but I don’t have money like that!”

I took a glance around me at the books, which aren’t made anymore, so there is next to none of them, and then I looked behind me at the luxurious hallways.

“Uh huh, sure. The prison back there looks like your designers spent five minutes on it, and it looks like you designed this room yourself.”

“Ok, first of all, that isn’t a prison, it’s a, um, a, a lodge. A very, very terrible one. Anyway, I guess you’re wondering why you’re here, with other kids your age that have powers as well. Did you realize that?”

“I kind of suspected something, with the fake me and the blood pouring out of my arm,” I said.

“Well, now you know. The one you call Jinx is very fast and created her own fighting dialect that emphasizes her speed. Faze is a shapeshifter – that’s why there was a copy of you – and Elizabeth, or Lizzy, is an illusionist. That is why she has a chip embedded in her head, to stop her from tricking or scaring my guards. Although that didn’t seem to work, if there was blood that was pouring out of you,” he frowned, and then continued to talk, “I have, erm, invited you to be part of a team. A team to overthrow Pramo. We will be called UPR, or the United Pramo Rebellion. We will have squads of teams of kids with extraordinary powers, such as yours. What do you say? Will you join?”

I thought about the proposition, and remembered why I got captured in the first place. “What about my mom? My dad already died from the Hard Cold, and I don’t want to lose her as well.”

“We at the UPR have been working on a medicine for the Hard Cold. It has taken years, but it is finally ready. We will provide shelter, food, and medicine to her.”

“Then I’m in.”

The man grinned. “Welcome to the UPR, Surreal.”

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